When you go on vacation, especially to Jamaica, you envision your time as relaxing and sipping Mai Tais on the beach. That was going to be 17 year old, Elliot Sherin’s, plan but everything changed when she came across a bunch of homeless dogs. Sherin was supposed to go horseback riding on the beach when she saw them wondering around.
Sherin along with her dad, saw one puppy that was behind the rest of them. He was all skin and bones and couldn’t have been older than three months.
She named him Kingston and you know once you name a stray dog, there’s no going back.
Sherin spoke to The Dodo and said:
“The rest of the dogs walked right up to us looking for food. But he was very scared. He wouldn’t let us get near him. All I could think of was, ‘How am I going to get him out of here?”
She contacted Animal House Jamaica and they said that they could help!
She went onto say:
“At that point, I was completely set on rescuing this dog and bringing him home with me. I couldn’t stop looking at the picture I had taken of him. I could tell he was such a sweet little dog, just very scared. Meanwhile, my family was saying, ‘Yeah right, that’s impossible.’”
But, Animal House Jamaica came back with great news. As long as Sherin could cover the vet costs along with a plane ride home they would help Kingston recover for his long journey ahead.
After some convincing with her parents, Sherin was able to get their approval as long as she paid for everything. Now they just had to catch Kingston to bring him to Animal House Jamaica, which was a hard task but it eventually happened. Sherin said:
“He was really malnourished, covered in cuts and scrapes and had heartworms. He was with the rescue until February just getting healthy enough to fly.”
Sherin was able to raise $900 for Kingston’s flight to his forever home, and donated the remaining money to the rescue to thank them for all their hard work. It was all coming together and now Sherin just had to wait for Kingston’s plane to arrive.
“We got to the airport where he was waiting with all the other pets who had flown in. They lifted up the garage door and I saw him sitting in his crate … and I just cried. He was here, after everybody laughed at me for being a kid and trying to set all of this up on my own. He was home and he was so beautiful.”
Now it was time for Kingston to get acclimated to his new home and country. It didn’t take long for him to know where home was though. Sherin recalled:
“After about 10 minutes of exploring he came back and sat down right in my lap. You could tell he was so starved for attention. He just wanted someone to love and bond with.”
Now it’s been eight months or so and Kingston is loving his new life. He loves every human as well as his lab-brother.
Sherin concluded:
“Getting him here is what I’m most proud of in my entire life. Before Kingston, I had never visited a country where feral dogs are so abundant. I had never seen a dog so malnourished that he could barely stand. He opened my eyes to so many things. I’m grateful. And he is too.”
If you need more of Kingston in your life, you know he has an Instagram so follow him here!